> There's a potential for millions, but my lottery ticket is also worth potentially millions of dollars. In reality, not even that is true for most options and

> There's a potential for millions, but my lottery ticket is also worth potentially millions of dollars. In reality, not even that is true for most options and most employees. For most companies, even doing well and going to an IPO or acquisition isn't going to make more than a handful of employees rich. Unless you get in very early (employee 10 or earlier maybe) or the company does amazingly well (think Facebook or Microsoft), you're generally not going to get rich off of stock options. If the company does really well you'll buy a new car and pay off your house, but the chances of retiring early are pretty low.